Every Young Person Needs to Hear This From Nigerian-American Inventor, Jessica O. Matthews

Jessica O. Matthews is a Nigerian-American inventor, CEO and venture capitalist. She is the co-founder of Uncharted Power, which made Soccket, a soccer ball that can be used as a power generator.

When Jessica started out, she would compare herself with more successful CEOs and question her potential. According to her, she didn’t think she could head an energy company and build wealth for communities.

In 2011, Fortune Magazine named her Fortune’s “10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” and in 2015, named her as Fortune’s “Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs.”

Meanwhile, in her first year of university, Jessica couldn’t even figure out her goals. Encouraging young people who are in her shoes as a young person, Jessica shares what they need to know to be who they want to be.

Read excerpts from her speech here

One thing very much to make sure little girls who look like me believe that they can do anything and believe that they can just do more than media and entertainment and believe in the value of their perspective and that’s what gets me up in the morning.

And what I found is that, instead of trying to live a successful life, if you aim to have a successful day… if you won 30 minutes out of 24 hours of your day, you’ve won the day and if you win most of the days in a week, you’ve won the week.

When I say that I know who I am, the unsaid part of the things I said is what I don’t know about myself, I’m open to finding out. So, I think the idea is to think about our life as a constant research experience. You have to figure out who is inside of you as soon as possible.

Every six weeks, I ask myself if I am happy. And it’s a really simple thing because the answer is either a yes or no. and if it’s a no, I ask myself if I am doing things that is working towards making me happy and if its still a no, I stop everything as it doesn’t make sense.

I was able to state who I am by staying open to learning who I am from those who have been working to figure out themselves also.